


two idiots take the day off

by lawrencetheshark



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Creeks, Kisses, M/M, walks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:54:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24401638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lawrencetheshark/pseuds/lawrencetheshark
Summary: in need of a change of pace (and directly ordered to by the Burning Rescue captain), Lio and Galo take a day off, and take a walk.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 8
Kudos: 73





	two idiots take the day off

**Author's Note:**

> listen fellas im gay and i yearn and when i find a park i didnt know about right behind my apartment complex i romanticize the hell out of it.
> 
> this is literally just what i did today except with a splash of gay romance and one thing i was too chickenshit to actually do. enjoy

It’s hot.

Well, it’s the end of May. It’s supposed to be hot. Summer will be here in no time at all. Just a few weeks now, which could pass like a minute or a year. But what’s more, it’s  _ finally _ hot. The first half of May was cold, too cold to comfortably consider it Spring. But what does it matter anymore, when it’s  _ hot _ , and the sky is blue, and there are no clouds to stop the rays of the sun from laying heavy on the necks of Lio Fotia and Galo Thymos.

Lio loves the feeling. He loves the humidity that thickens the air he breathes, he loves the sweat that builds up on the back of his neck and at his forehead, slicking his undercut and his bangs against his skin in his body’s natural attempt to cool him. He loves the thin sheen of sweat on his forearms, although he does wonder what all this sweat is doing to the sunscreen Galo had insisted they wear. He even loves the way the sun beats against his black t-shirt (a match to the one Galo is currently wearing, standard-issue by the station) and the thickness of his denim Bermuda shorts that Galo had bought for him. Thirty years spent with a faint heat buzzing within him, pulsing beneath his skin and at his fingertips, of being able to go out in all that leather (and obsidian armor!) even on the hot days because what does ambient temperature matter when there is a dragon made of fire living in your core?

Lio misses the Promare, but this is  _ nice _ .

He and Galo have been walking for about an hour now, discussing their separate duties and updating each other on how things are progressing. They were instructed to take the day off after three weeks of almost constant work and very little sleep (which each of them chose to push through, mind you; with so much reconstruction work to be done, with so much rehousing, with so much damn paperwork and so many people to help, neither one would have been able to be idle for very long). Each one, of course, has a bag of emergency supplies on their bikes parked in a communal lot, and a smaller one at their hips, and a pager for emergency. They also each have their gear packed into saddlebags. It’s a compromise, the least either would settle for even as they were practically forced out of the station by a very adamant Ignis, who had been running himself just as ragged as every other member for just as long. They’ll take days off in shifts, he’d said, each when work could be better accomplished by someone else on the force that day.

Lio isn’t sure why this includes  _ him _ , but it’s nice to catch up with Galo, whom he’s hardly had the chance to see over the past few weeks, much less talk to.

So, a day off, and a walk; they’d driven their bikes out to a suburban area not too far from the city of Promepolis proper. It’s a nice change of pace, to see how civilization has sprawled out beyond the central hub of the city. Large single-family homes sit set up alongside rowhouses, vast empty lawns sprawl into heavily landscaped front areas, driveways and sidewalks sport chalk drawings and toy cars and basketballs, decks jut out above backyards, elderly people sit on covered porches, dogs bark their warnings from the edge of their invisible electric fences. It’s a breath of fresh air, to be able to see all of this, to walk away, if only momentarily, from the wrecked tight quarters and heartache of the city.

“Which way next?”

Lio blinks, Galo’s voice pulling him out of his head; he hadn’t realized he’d spaced out taking in the neighborhood around him, but when he looks forward again, he sees they’re coming to another four-way intersection. He likes, too, that there are no marked lanes, no marked crosswalks, no stop lines. It’s indicative of low-volume traffic, and a simple life. He finds that he doesn’t  _ know _ which way to go next. It isn’t like they’re really walking towards anything in particular, after all, and such a low-stakes not-knowing is nice, too. “Let’s keep going straight, we just came from that way.”

He nods off to their right, and Galo grins, checking all four ways for cars although neither one of them can hear any, neither one of them  _ has  _ heard any this whole time, it’s so damn peaceful, a guy could go  _ crazy _ here, Lio can feel it in his old bones. He just shakes his head with a chuckle, and matches Galo step for step across the street.

They walk for about another block before Galo speaks up again. “Creekside drive, huh,” he comments. Lio follows his gaze to a street sign coming up on their right. “I wonder why it’s named that?”

Lio hums to himself. “Must be a creek around here,” he reasons. “Or at least, there was when the place was named.”

Galo laughs. “That makes sense! Should we go see?”

Lio shakes his head gently. ‘No, let’s keep going until we can’t anymore. We can backtrack and check it out later.”

They cross the street once more, and not a minute later, as they round a curve in the road, they see a sign for Creekside Drive again, and past that, one much more unexpected, nestled back from the sidewalk and stationed beside a driveway that dips into a somewhat inconspicuous opening in the trees. 

‘What is that…?” Lio asks softly, mostly to himself.

Beside him, Galo straightens up, getting excited. “It’s a park sign!”

“Park sign?”

“Yeah! Let’s go!” Galo’s large, warm hand finds Lio’s much smaller one. Both are sticky with heat and residual sunscreen, but Lio shivers anyhow, as he does every time Galo touches him so casually, something he’s been doing an awful lot since Kray Foresight’s defeat. 

It’s  _ also _ nice. Lio wonders how one day can be full of so many nice things.

When they get closer, Lio sees what Galo means. It is indeed a park sign. It’s a case made of sturdy wood perched on two sturdy legs and topped with a triangular roof-like piece of wood, with two glass panels on the front that locks with a key. Within the case is a laminated map of the park and a set of park guidelines, hours, and local ordinances for citizens to follow.

“Wow,” Galo breathes. Lio looks up to see him beaming as he looks at the map. The map depicts a satellite view of the neighborhoods they’ve been walking through, as well as a long and winding creek spanning the whole length of the map from bottom to top. A small bubble marked “you are here” sits at the bottom, near a sharp bend in the creek. A red line marks off the path of the creek itself, and dotted yellow lines mark out several paths along the creek and behind the residential areas and a stretch of trees and vegetation. “I had no idea this sort of thing was all the way out here!”

“No?”

“I really only see these kinds of things as big tourist traps,” Galo explains. “Not that I’ve been too many places, but I didn’t know there could be something like this so small and local. I mean, to the people here.”

Lio hums again. “You just have a knack for finding weird out-of-the-way bodies of water, huh?” he teases, turning to walk down the driveway. Forward and to the left is a fenced-off building for city employees. To the right is a packed dirt path that leads deeper into the trees.

He hears Galo follow behind him, trotting to catch up with Lio’s long strides. It’s cooler here, in the shade, which has Lio breathing a small sigh of relief. Heat and sweat are nice, but the gentle difference in temperature between the direct sun and the shade of the trees feels wonderful. “What do you mean by that?”

“The frozen lake,” Lio reminds him over his shoulder. “You found that place and used it as a kind of hideaway, right?”

Galo hums to himself. “Yeah, that’s true.”

Lio can feel Galo close at his back, though certainly not close enough to disrupt either one of their strides. The path before them is narrow, clearly made for the most part by repeated use rather than by machines, and allows for only one person to walk comfortably without running too far into the vegetation on either side. Lio has a basic knowledge of plants that are poisonous and insects that are harmful, but isn’t too keen on testing that knowledge right now, so he’s thankful that Galo and his broad shoulders stay decisively behind him, even if it means he can’t see the sparkle in his blue eyes or the cute firmness of his backside. 

The creek is off to the left of the trail. The smell of it hits Lio’s senses before the light reflecting off the water’s surface does. It’s not exactly a pleasant smell, but it’s organic, somewhat fishy and mingling with the smell of the greenery around them. It hits Galo a moment later, and he groans, which makes Lio laugh.

It’s peaceful here, too. The path follows the motion of the creek below and of the forest around it, and the creek is quiet. Lio finds his eyes drawn to the colors in the trees, how the sunlight filters through the leaves, painting half of them in bright golden vibrance, fluttering in gentle contrast to the deep green hues of half cast in shadow.

“I’m not really sure how this is a park,” Lio says, mostly to himself, but of course, Galo hears, and Galo will respond. 

“Maybe the town made it a park on record to make maintenance and rescue easier,” the taller man suggests.

Lio notices a small bank off to the side leading down to a massive boulder embedded in the creek floor, with a mostly flat surface, bathed in sunlight. He decides to step down to it, a delightfully human desire to be closer to the motion of the water stronger than he’s ever felt welling up inside him. “You think so?”

“I mean, why not,” Galo says. His voice gives away a clear smile, and Lio looks back at him standing up on the path now above him in time to see him shrug. “It wouldn’t make sense to make it illegal to walk back here, since there’s no actual way to enforce it, and they have to have measures in place for flood control, so maybe classifying it as a park keeps the land from being privatized and protects individuals or private companies from being liable if something goes wrong. It is nature, after all, and you can’t sue the Earth itself.”

Lio’s eyes widen as Galo speaks, and he can’t help but blink in shock and awe. He knows Galo isn’t really  _ stupid _ , despite being an idiot, but hearing him speculate out loud like that in a seemingly semi-informed way is...jarring, and breathtaking, and Lio feels his chest tighten a little.

Galo starts to look a little self-conscious under Lio’s surprised stare, and he crosses his arms over his chest and leans his shoulder on the thicker of the small trees at the edge of the bank Lio had climbed down. “I don’t know much about these things, I’m just thinking out loud,” he grumbles, as if Lio is looking for some kind of defense. 

Lio can’t help the breathy laugh that comes out of his throat. “You’re amazing, Galo Thymos,” he says with a shake of his head, and he pats the flat of the boulder beside him. “Come sit.”

Lio watches as Galo hesitates for a moment, then straightens, and steps carefully down the bank to the boulder, checking his weight on the tangled root and the smaller but still considerably-sized rock that seem to make up a tiny pseudo-staircase before committing to his steps. He sits beside Lio and turns to face the glimmering creek, holding his knees to his chest the same way Lio is, only a little tighter. Lio thinks if the man stretched out fully from here he could rest his feet on the bottom of the creek while his own soles would hover a couple of inches above the gentle undulation of the water.

He thinks he doesn’t mind.

“It’s beautiful,” Lio finds himself saying, looking back out over the water. The opposite side of the creek sits considerably higher than the side of the path, and Lio wonders to himself how high the water must get when it gets high, after a significant rainfall, or, any rainfall, really. He wonders how far back in time he’s looking when he looks at how the ground has been carved out by the water, concave if only a little bit, grass hanging over the edge a good five feet or more above the water’s surface.

“It is,” Galo agrees, voice fond and quieter than it has been all day, as if speaking at his normal volume would disrupt the environment they’ve found themselves in.

Lio chances a glance over at Galo beside him, just as Galo is turning away from looking at him, directing his gaze to the water.

Lio feels his face go a little hot, and his eyes go a little wide. It’s not exactly a  _ secret _ that Galo thinks he’s beautiful; he has said so himself once or twice, even if it was more teasing him by calling him “pretty boy” than an actual serious declaration that he found him beautiful, and even if Lio had responded, “Yes, that’s right, call me pretty boy, call me the prettiest boy you’ve ever seen,” and Galo had blushed furiously and stomped off. But this is something else. This is something that makes Lio think that he likes the way the creek is presently, no matter what it was like in the past.

“Water is amazing, isn’t it?” Galo says out of the blue. His voice is a little higher than usual, and Lio can tell he knows he’s been caught. “It just cuts its path right out of the world, flows right in and around and makes itself a home wherever it goes.”

“Galo.”

Galo doesn’t move, except to close his mouth, which settles into a nervous line. Lio rests his cheek against his hand, in the same way he had all wrapped up in his Burnish armor the day they met. He tries again. “Galo.”

This time, Galo does turn to look at him, brows furrowed. He doesn’t speak, and neither does Lio; he simply holds the other man’s blue gaze until one of those blue brows starts to twitch, and his face starts to collapse from its nerves and into annoyance.

“Lio,  _ what _ \--”

And that’s when Lio decides to kiss him.

It’s just a quick little peck on the lips, over almost as quickly as it began. And it’s  _ funny _ . Lio watches, delighted, as the blush spreads like wildfire across Galo’s cheeks, up his ears and down his neck.

And then he starts spluttering. “You...wh...huh...n...you???”

“Those aren’t words,” Lio snickers.

Galo lets out a noise that’s something like a whine, something like a groan, and drags his fingers through his hair. “They are too words!” he argues. Lio thinks flustered is a good look on him. “I can’t believe you just did that!”

Lio feels himself grinning wide and toothy. “You can’t, huh? Maybe I ought to do it again?”

Galo freezes, and settles, his eyes flicking down to Lio’s lips and then back up to his eyes. “Might have to,” he says quietly. “Or I won’t be convinced.”

Lio certainly doesn’t have to be told twice, and he leans in again. This time, Galo leans to meet him halfway; this time, their lips slot together, sweet and gentle, for a long moment.

Lio is the first to pull away, smiling as Galo chases his lips as he opens his eyes. “Do you believe it now?” he teases.

“Yes.” Galo’s voice is breathy, and his eyes are sparkling, and it’s not just a reflection from the creek flowing around them.

“Come on,” Lio says, standing abruptly and turning to step carefully back up the bank. “I want to see the rest of it.”

Galo is quick to follow.

They make it back to their bikes an hour and a half later, hand in sweaty hand. It’s been a nice day.


End file.
